


End of the Night

by amethyst-noir (Arbonne)



Series: Prompt Collection [19]
Category: Doctor Strange (2016), Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Established Relationship, Happy Ending, M/M, Protective Tony Stark, Romantic Fluff, Social Media, Stephen is gorgeous and Tony will prove it to the world, but Tony has ways to make it all better, can be a horrible
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-04
Updated: 2018-11-04
Packaged: 2019-08-17 12:50:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,077
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16516805
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Arbonne/pseuds/amethyst-noir
Summary: Another, quite vocal, part of the social media outlets focused on another, even more important aspect of Doctor Stephen Strange: His appearance.(When their relationship goes public people are... not impressed by the new man on Tony Stark's side. Tony's not impressed with that response.)





	End of the Night

**Author's Note:**

> Yet another prompt fill, yay! :)  
>  _could i request an ironstrange fic where stephen is insecure about his looks? because a lot of people make fun of the way benedict cumberbatch looks so what if in the fic people also make fun of the way stephen looks, especially after he gotten together with tony, wiith everyone and the media talking abt whether tony has to taste or sth, and stephen gets really unsure and sad and insecure. tony doesn't notice at first because to him stephen is gorgeous but when he does he tells him just how much_
> 
> This one got much sweeter than planned in the second half - I just wanted to give them some cute happiness. The title is from a song by _Rhea's Obsession_.

When the candid pictures of Tony Stark gently embracing and kissing another man hit the internet there were two distinctive reactions: The ones that were positive, ecstatic and relieved that he had managed to find a new love after the very public disintegration of his engagement to Pepper Potts and the ones who were appalled or even disgusted that the new guy on Tony's side was exactly that - a guy.

It took the world about a minute to put a name on the stranger on Tony's side during the latest SI charity event and then the real shitstorm began.

A former doctor who had vanished from the face of the earth after a career-ending accident? One who had been quite famous in his field but also had a semi-bad reputation for being kind of an asshole and being too high-and-mighty for his own good?

Old patients came out of the shadows, praising a surgeon who had saved them when everybody else had given up on them. Others were complaining that their loved ones had been turned away and died as a result.

Another, quite vocal, part of the social media outlets focused on another, even more important aspect of Doctor Stephen Strange: His appearance.

Too tall, too thin and not nearly attractive enough was the general consensus and only a minority protested that this Doctor Strange guy was very attractive. And what was he doing now anyway? He didn't work as a surgeon or in a private practice - was he living off Tony's billions? Wasn't there evidence of him selling all of his properties before vanishing? Questions after questions but except for an uncharacteristic short press statement condemning the unsolicited pictures, confirming the relationship and claiming that it was "very, very serious" and "I've never been happier in my life, no further comment" there was nothing from either Tony Stark or Stark Industries' PR-department. Doctor Strange himself was unavailable for a comment.

The secrecy only helped to fuel the imagination of the world.

*

Two weeks after the photos had leaked Tony was in a constant state of hatred for all of humanity and frantically searching for a - any - way to make it all go away. At first, he hadn't taken it seriously - there was _always_ something about him in the press and most of the things not concerning Iron Man weren't very flattering. His personal life and relationships had been a constant hot topic for as long as he could remember but he couldn't deny that the internet had made everything just that little bit worse.

But he'd learned to live with it. Not so Stephen. Stephen, who had been kind of a celebrity but not really recognizable by the masses back in his high society days and whose sense of self-worth had taken a big blow with the accident and everything that came after. While he'd been not really self-conscious about his looks so far, he was self-conscious about the rest of him - his scars, the trembling hands and the pain and weakness he sometimes barely managed to hide when they were out and about.

But the constant barrage of tweets and articles criticizing his every move and look took their toll and after a few days of Stephen becoming more and more withdrawn before finally escaping to Kamar-Taj for an "important something", according to his own words, even Tony recognized that was something amiss. He just didn't know what, having not followed the whole debacle online.

"We just need to put some distance between us, wait for the whole thing to calm down a little bit," Stephen had said quietly, unable to look Tony into the eyes. That had been the moment Tony's inner red alert had gone off and it hadn't stopped since. He'd barely had any time to say goodbye before Stephen had vanished and after a little investigation by FRIDAY Tony couldn't even blame him.

He felt sick and wanted to burn the whole of the internet to the ground - he couldn't imagine how Stephen, the victim of all the senseless hate and blame had to feel. His poor Stephen, who already was such a mess of complexes that he really didn't need another one, let alone one that was completely unfounded.

Stephen was _beautiful_ , inside and out, much more so than Tony himself, no matter what the faceless masses posted. The leaked photos didn’t even show much of him since he’d been busy being kissed into oblivion in that moment and it had been dark. They’d felt safe outside, amidst the trees. Foolish of them. But there were older photos, from before the accident, of course. Tony just found him gorgeous. He was looking at an old picture, taken just days before the accident, and admiring Stephen’s wonderful eyes and stunning face. Clean shaven with a rather cold and arrogant look on his face Stephen was almost otherworldly beautiful. How could anybody not see the grace and beauty in him?

He wanted Stephen back in his arms, _right now_.

"FRIDAY? What can we do to get this shit off the net and let it rot in hell where it belongs?"

"Boss, I can't just go into the social media accounts of hundreds of thousands of people and delete their messages. You can only threaten the official news channels with a cease and desist order, not people."

"Why not? I've programmed you better."

"Yes, and exactly those privacy and free speech protocols you've integrated into my base code don't allow me to censor the internet."

"Fuck."

"I'm sorry, Boss. I wish I could be of more help." FRIDAY didn't sound any happier about the garbage she'd had to scan through in the last few hours.

Tony leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes, defeated. "Give legal the green light for that cease and desist orders," he finally said. "Tell them that they can have a party - if we let the press focus on me misusing my company for my own personal vendetta, they're going to be too busy talking crap about me to write about Stephen. Basically, do everything you can to get the spotlight off him; I don't care where it goes. I just don't want to see _Iron Man lowers his standards to damaged goods_ or _Is_ _Tony Stark's taste in men really so much worse than his taste in women?_ ever again and if Stephen's name is still trending on twitter in one hour I'm flying there and blowing their main server farm up. Got it?"

"Got it, Boss. I'm on it."

"Good girl. Keep me up to date how it goes, I have to go to the other end of the world to get my wizard back home where he belongs."

"Do you want me to prepare the jet?"

Tony had planned to go to Kamar-Taj by suit and travel back via portal but FRIDAY's idea was better. He could bring Stephen back home in style and could begin to repair the damage on the way back. He had plans to show Stephen _exactly_ how beautiful he was and half a day on a plane was just the sort of time-out from everything he needed to do that. "Yeah, I want to take off as soon as possible. I'll just call Pepper and let her know what I'm up to." He could make a little bit of trouble for a lot of people while he was up in the air. He was looking forward to that.

"Will do so, Boss." 

*

Less than two days later, and back home in the tower, the world looked just a little bit brighter. FRIDAY and Tony's army of lawyers were still working on shutting the nasty rumors down and Tony had plans for the big charity gala only a couple of days away. They were going to show the world that they were the best couple _ever_. The press would talk about their entrance for days and if a sentient Cloak and at little bit of magic would be involved? Nobody except them would ever know. Despite everything Stephen had chosen to be on his side and was willing to brave the spotlight once again. Life didn't get more magical than that.

Tony looked down at the man sleeping in his arms and smiled. Stephen looked so young and carefree when he was relaxed and Tony loved the fact that he was the reason for it. He gently stroked over one sharp cheekbone and laughed when Stephen snuggled even closer, like a cat chasing sunbeams. "Such a cat," he whispered. It wasn't a new accusation and while Stephen had been skeptical at first, he loved being compared to one by now. "I wish you could see yourself like this," he continued. "The rest of the world can go and fuck themselves but it's really a shame that you can't see yourself through my eyes. Your beauty, your grace, your really, really amazing ass and legs…"

"Normally I get compliments for my eyes more than anything else," Stephen said drowsily, his eyes still closed. But he was smiling and still relaxed.

"Your eyes are amazing, of course." Tony fell in love all over again as Stephen tried to open them and instead just blinked sleepily for a moment before giving up again. "Cat," Tony said again and bent down to kiss the tip of his nose. "Go back to sleep, baby." _You need it_ , he didn't add. The jet-lag had hit hard and while they'd talked for a while Tony had spent most of the journey back showing is appreciation in more… physical ways. Exhausted from sex was a nice look on Stephen and Tony would happily spent the next few decades of his life showing Stephen just how desirable he was. _I'd love to keep you like this forever._ He would never dare to speak those words out loud but it was a nice fantasy.

He gently stroked over Stephen's naked back, half wishing for a purr. He laughed over his own silliness.

"Despite your best efforts I'm still not a cat," Stephen complained playfully. But he moved into the contact and did his best to mold his body even more against Tony's and took a deep breath. "I'll get over it." Suddenly he was serious. "It's nothing I haven't heard before - just not on a global scale. We always knew that there'll be backlash when our relationship goes public. I just need a little bit of time to get used to it. Most of the people are just jealous anyway." He kissed Tony's shoulder, the only part he could reach without moving.

Tony didn't say anything for a while, unsure how to proceed. Yes, they'd known, that had been one of the reasons why they'd kept it quiet for as long as possible. "I thought the problem was going to be that we're both men," he finally said. "I didn't expect them to focus on your appearance."

"Tony, they've been talking about you and how you look for _decades_. You're gorgeous and one of the world's most sought-after bachelors. Of course they were going to look at me and find me wanting." The bad part was that Stephen didn't even sound indignant, just resigned. Tony hated it.

"If anything they should ask themselves what an intelligent, cultured, amazing man like you is doing with a guy like _me_." There was more truth in the statement than Tony wanted to admit even to himself but, predictably, Stephen didn't let him get away with it.

"Stop fishing, Tony. I've made you more than enough compliments already." But Stephen pushed himself up to cup Tony's face between his hands and kiss him slowly and deeply. "You're the best and one day I'll get you to accept that. In the meantime: How about you show a little bit more of your appreciation for _me_? I think I still haven't fully realized how amazing I am." Stephen had the audacity to _wink_ and Tony's somber mood vanished immediately. He took a moment to calculate his angle of attack and then he _pounced_.

Stephen's carefree laughter sounded across the penthouse. 

*

The next day, thanks to FRIDAY, a very carefully chosen photo of Tony and Stephen kissing in the sunlight showed up. It was an instant hit and drowned out all the other society news and _Tony x Stephen_ in various combinations of _cute_ , _true love_ and _no longer hiding in the shadows_ trended on Tumblr.

**Author's Note:**

> [Original post](https://amethyst-noir.tumblr.com/post/179459512831/could-i-request-an-ironstrange-fic-where-stephen/) (with added GIF).


End file.
